I
love to smoke, and not just my cigars. I’m
talking about the barbecue variety, which here in Texas means cooking low and
slow over a wood and charcoal fire to both tenderly cook your food and flavor
it with the wonderful taste and essence of smoke.
When
one thinks of smoking foods, hearty, meaty dishes like brisket, ribs or pulled
pork come to mind. But here is a dish
that captures the subtle side of the smoke flavor, using the vehicle of a
tangy, creamy and tasty soup.
So,
how do you smoke soup? Don’t worry, you
won’t need any elaborate smoke distillation system or a water pump. In this dish, we impart our smoke flavor by
smoking some of the ingredients, in this case, corn and Italian sausage, and
then add them to the mix. Both the corn
and the sausage pick up different aspects of the smoke flavor and bring it with
them to the soup, creating a mélange of flavor that is out of this world.
Smoked
Corn and Sausage Soup
4 medium to large ears of corn, husks and silk removed
4 uncooked Italian sausages, or a spicy sausage of your choice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups chicken stock
1.5 cups half and half or heavy cream
¼ cup minced fresh basil
Salt to taste
4 uncooked Italian sausages, or a spicy sausage of your choice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups chicken stock
1.5 cups half and half or heavy cream
¼ cup minced fresh basil
Salt to taste
Try
to get the best quality and freshest corn you can get. If you have access to a farmers market or
similar, make the extra effort to get good corn. Also, fresh-made sausages from places like
Whole Foods or Central Market will really give a boost to the recipe versus
using prepackaged supermarket variety sausage.
Fire
up your smoker to cook low and slow with a nice, light wood, for instance maple
or any of the fruit woods.
I use maple
for this recipe, as it has a nice, light, slightly sugary flavor and aroma that
pairs well with the soup. Avoid mesquite
with this recipe, as it is too harsh for the delicate flavors of the soup, and
if you use hickory, use about half as much wood as normal.
Here
I’ve set up the dampers on my Weber kettle so it will function as a smoker, with
the temperature topping out around 225 degrees F. Try to keep your smoker in the 200-250F
range.
Place
the corn and sausage in the smoker...
...and smoke for thirty minutes, then rotate
the corn a half turn. Smoke another
thirty minutes, and it should look like this.
Turn the sausage over, remove the corn and reserve. Smoke the sausage another hour (two hours
total) until they are well-smoked and done.
When
the corn is cool enough to handle, use a sharp knife and cut the kernels from
the ears.
Reserve the kernels and cobs
separately.
While
the sausages are finishing their second hour of smoke, you can start on the
soup. In a large, heavy stock pot, warm
the olive oil over medium heat. Add the
bell pepper and sauté for a few minutes until it begins to soften.
Add the garlic and cook a minute more. Pour in the stock, add three of the reserved
corn cobs, and simmer for twenty minutes.
There’s a lot of good, corn flavor in those cobs. This will extract it. Then, using tongs or similar, remove the corn
cobs and discard.
Try
to time the above procedure so that the cobs finish simmering when your sausage
is ready to come out of the smoker.
Halve
the sausage lengthwise, then slice into quarter-inch half-rounds.
Drain the sausages on paper towels if they are greasy.
After
you have removed the corn cobs from the stock, stir in the sausage along with
the corn kernels, half-and-half, basil and salt to taste. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for an
additional ten minutes.
Serve
immediately.
Until next time,
Smoke 'em if you got 'em,
Chris
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